Generation of Elemental Fluorine through the Electrolysis of Copper Difluoride at Room Temperature

Abstract

The safe generation of F 2 gas at room temperature by using simple cell configurations has been the "holy grail" of fluorine researchf or centuries.T hus,t oa ddress this issue,w e report generation of F 2 gas through the electrolysis of CuF 2 in aCsF-2.45HF molten salt without the evolution of H 2 gas.The CuF 2 is selected through aseries of thermodynamic and kinetic assessments of possible metal fluorides.Anode assessments on graphite and glass-like carbon demonstrate the effect of the absence of the anode during generation of F 2 gas owingt o stabilized operations at room temperature.A lthough the Ni anode dissolves during electrolysis in the conventional medium-temperature cell, herein, it facilitates stable electrolysis over 100 h, achieving an F 2 gas purity of over 99 %w ith the potential to operate using one-compartment electrolysis.T his work presents asafe and propitious method for the generation of high-purity F 2 gas for small-scale lab and industrial applications.